Elmwood, 20th Oct, 1876
Dear Sir,
My friendship with George
Hoar & my respect for his character are
of too long [date ? ] to be shaken by any difference
of opinion on a question of expressing,  for
that (if I understod it rightly) was the point
on which we divided at Cincinnati.  Mr Hoar's
action & influence then were at the time very
strangely misrepresented at home.  I thought
then & think now that a[ little ?] of the proof
that failed to convince him in Blaine's case
would have been ample for the conviction of
Butler, but I certainly liked him none the
less for being faithful to his own opinion
& to his friend.
As to speaking in the Congress,
it is quite out of the question.  I long ago
laid to heart the lesson never to attempt
what I could not do with all my might





& with the sympathy of all my faculties.  I
do not know what training might have
done for me, but the habitude of years
has made me the least fortunate man
conceivable for a stump speaker.  Moreover,
even were it otherwise, I am so wholly out
of sympathy with the manner in which
the Republican Congress has been thus far
mainly conducted & with the men who have
been prominent in it, that my contribution
would be at best but a bucket of cold water.
George Hoar & I are at opposite points of
the Congress on the Southern question. I feel
therefore that I am only [  ?]   loyalty
with my friendship for him in [declining ?] to
encumber him with what would be but
awkward help.  If I thought I could make
an effective speech in his behalf, I would
not hesitate a moment.  Had it been
earlier in the Congress, it might have been
possible, but, apart from other considerations,
I am just now suffering a depression from
physical causes which peculiarly unfits me
for any such exertion.  What my wishes &
hopes are I need not say, & George Hoar would
be the last person to misunderstand them.
I remain
very truly yours
J. R. Lowell